"[A] resume gives the employer everything she needs to reject you. Once you send me your resume, I can say, ‘Oh, they're missing this or they're missing that,' and boom, you're out."

But if you're not leaning so much on your resume, how do you get your foot in the door? Zeltser suggests:

Advertisement

If you promise yourself to only use the resume closer to the end of the interviewing process as a mere formality, you'll motivate yourself to showcase yourself in other ways. You'll have no choice but to take on projects that make you stand out from the crowd in ways such as:

• Developing tools that showcase your creativity and technical prowess
• Maintaining a blog to share insights in your specific area of expertise

The fact is, many of us won't always have a choice but to hand out our resume, but Zeltser's suggestions for making yourself stand out apart from your resume (more of which are in the full post) are certainly worth considering.

If you've landed a job without relying on your resume, let's hear about it in the comments. Photo by SocialisBetter.